Relatively new research ?elds such as ambient intelligence, intelligent envir- ments, ubiquitous computing, and wearable devices have emerged in recent years. These ?elds are related by a common theme: making use of novel technologies to enhance user experience by providing user-centric intelligent environments, - moving computers from the desktop and making computing available anywhere and anytime. It must be said that the concept of intelligent environments is not new and beganwithhomeautomation. Thechoiceofnameforthe?eldvariessomewhatfrom continent to continent in the English-speaking world. In general intelligent space is synonymous to intelligent environments or smart spaces of which smart homes is a sub?eld. In this collection, the terms intelligent environments and ambient int- ligence are used interchangeably throughout. Such environments are made possible by permeating living spaces with intelligent technology that enhances quality of life. In particular, advances in technologies such as miniaturized sensors, advances in communication and networking technology including high-bandwidth wireless devices and the reduction in power consumption have made possible the concept of intelligent environments. Environments such as a home, an of?ce, a shopping mall, and a travel port utilize data provided by users to adapt the environment to meet the user's needs and improve human-machine interactions. The user information is gathered either via wearable devices or by pervasive sensors or a combination of both. Intelligent environments brings together a number of research ?elds from computer science, such as arti?cial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, and robotics as well as engineering and architecture.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

6

Contents

7

List of Contributors

13

Intelligent Environments: Methods, Algorithms and Applications

16

1.1 Intelligent Environments

16

1.2 Technology for Intelligent Environments

17

1.3 Research Projects

19

1.4 Chapter Themes in This Collection

23

1.5 Conclusion

24

References

25

A Pervasive Sensor System for Evidence-Based Nursing Care Support

27

2.1 Introduction

27

2.2 Evidence-Based Nursing Care Support

28

2.3 Related Work

32

2.4 Overview and Implementations of the System

33

2.5 Experiments and Analyses

38

2.6 Prospect of the Evidence-Based Nursing Care Support System

44

2.7 Conclusions

45

References

46

Anomalous Behavior Detection: Supporting Independent Living

48

3.1 Introduction

48

3.2 Related work

49

3.3 Methodology

50

3.4 Experimental Setup and Data Collection

52

3.5 Experimental Results

54

3.6 Discussion

61

3.7 Conclusions

62

References

62

Sequential Pattern Mining for Cooking-Support Robot

64

4.1 Introduction

64

4.2 System Design

66

4.3 Implementation

72

4.4 Experimental Results

76

4.5 Conclusions

78

References

79

Robotic, Sensory and Problem-Solving Ingredients for the Future Home

81

5.1 Introduction

81

5.2 The Robotic Platform Mobility Subsystem

83

5.3 The Interaction Manager

85

5.4 Environmental Sensors for People Tracking and Posture Recognition

86

5.5 Monitoring Activities of Daily Living

88

5.6 Multiagent Coordination Infrastructure

94

5.7 Conclusions

99

References

100

Ubiquitous Stereo Vision for Human Sensing

102

6.1 Introduction

102

6.2 Ubiquitous Stereo Vision

104

6.3 Hierarchical Utilization of 3D Data and Personal Recognition

106

6.4 Recognition of Multiple Persons and Interface

109

6.5 Human Monitoring in Open Space (Safety Management Application)

112

6.6 Conclusion and FutureWork

116

References

117

Augmenting Professional Training, an Ambient Intelligence Approach

119

7.1 Introduction

119

7.2 Color Tracking of People

122

7.3 Counting People by Spatial Relationship Analysis

123

7.4 Experimental Results

131

7.5 Conclusions

134

References

134

Stereo Omnidirectional System (SOS) and Its Applications

136

8.1 Introduction

136

8.2 System Configuration

137

8.3 Image integration

140

8.4 Generation of Stable Images at Arbitrary Rotation

142

8.5 An example Application: Intelligent Electric Wheelchair

145

8.6 Conclusions

149

References

149

Video Analysis for Ambient Intelligence in Urban Environments

151

9.1 Introduction

151

9.2 Visual Data for Urban AmI

152

9.3 Automatic Video Processing for People Tracking

157

9.4 Privacy and Ethical Issues

163

References

165

From Monomodal to Multimodal: Affect Recognition Using Visual Modalities